Echoes Of Past Selves
by Violet Simery
Summary: For as long as he can remember, he could remember nothing. So Strabimon, with nothing but a small streak of luck, heads for the human world, befriending one in the process. They're a strange pair, but maybe they can find out why digimon have been seen all over New York. And maybe, just maybe, they can finally solve the question that has haunted him for years: Who is he?
1. Prologue

_This is a new story, as you can see. I've always liked Digimon, and this idea has been in my head for a while, and soon it came to life._

_I don't own Digimon._

* * *

_Prologue_

* * *

"Are you sure?"

A weighted question. One with a lot of doubt behind it, and with good reason. If he answered in the affirmative, this would probably be written down as the most insane, stupid, idiotic, and asinine decision that he has ever made. After all, just the idea in it of itself was crazy, but to execute it?

Either an amazing success, or absolute suicide.

But, as the old adage went, desperate times often called for desperate measures. And though he wouldn't exactly consider himself desperate (he did have a certain amount of pride, after all) he was getting very close to it. The question was driving him to the brink of insanity.

Who was he, exactly?

It was the same question that haunted nine others, eight of his friends and his twin brother. They had faint remembrances, and occasionally a rather short, yet detailed, dream, but nothing that was substantial. All of them had simply tried to ignore it, but these occurrences were becoming more frequent as they grew older. Yet, he seemed to be the only one who wanted to look into it further. His brother had as well, until Lord Seraphimon had told them it was not to be of their concern until they grew older. His brother, naturally the 'good' twin, had appeared dejected, but followed Seraphimon's unspoken order.

He, on the other hand?

Well, let it never be said that Strabimon gave up on a problem, no matter how difficult it was to solve, or if he was even allowed to solve it at all.

He still looked into it, going into the great libraries, finding any book he could get his paws on, trying to solve the mystery of his very existence.

Who was he? And why did Lord Seraphimon seem so uneasy when he and his brother had confronted him with that particular question, more importantly? What did _he_, the great judge of the Digital World, have to fear from two rookie digimon?

It had affected him so much that it was starting to show. Luckily for him, it was his sensei, of all people, to first notice this.

Karatenmon was one of the greatest warriors the Digital World had seen in a very long time, considering he had _lived_ a very long time, with no reincarnations or past lives to speak of, like most digimon had. When Strabimon told him what exactly was bothering him, he simply smiled.

"So, you wish to find out who you are. But, for whatever reason, Seraphimon refuses to tell you."

"Yes, sensei. I don't understand why he seemed so…put out by the question."

Karatenmon's smile faded as he listened to how long and far Strabimon had searched for answers. The boy, as well as the other nine, had a right to know who they were, and what they did for this world. But Seraphimon…

_Damn him, the self-righteous bastard._

"Strabimon."

Said digimon stood attentive.

"I've been alive for quite some time,"

Strabimon mentally scoffed._ Understatement of the millennia._

"And I've seen rather extraordinary things, and met extraordinary people. One of these people, whom I hold in very high regard, actually bested me in battle."

At this, Strabimon looked as if someone had told him that Flamon was actually intelligent.

"…Sensei?"

Karatenmon laughed. "He was a rather silent warrior, and was still learning about himself, when he and I crossed paths. But he was clever, and refused to accept defeat. I believe he might have the answers you seek."

"Where exactly is he now?"

"That, I can not answer."

At this point, Strabimon wanted to punch something in pure frustration.

"But, you may find some clues to the answers you seek, by going to the place which seemed to influence him the most: the human world."

"Aren't digimon unable to go into the human world, sensei?"

"Most."

Huh?

Observing his student's puzzled look, the tengu-like digimon elaborated.

"Most digimon are unable to, because they simply do not have the capability or resources to. The fear that digimon would automatically decompose due to being a digital being in an organic world is only a theory. A theory proved wrong, I might add. In truth, when a digimon passes into the human world, they become just as organic as the world around. The reverse also applies to humans who make a venture into our world. A select few digimon have the capability of going into the human world, though, unlike humans who choose to go into our world, it is at a price."

"What?"

"They must remain in the human world for at least one year, in order for their bodies to get used to the experience. After that, they may go back and forth between worlds as they wish."

"A year? But if it's so easy-"

Karatenmon interrupted.

"Just because something is simple, it does not make it easy. Spending a _day _in the human world is rather a daunting challenge. An entire year is enough to make a digimon go mad, if he even survives that long."

Strabimon's expression remained neutral. However, his hands clenched and unclenched repeatedly, a nervous habit of his.

"So, Strabimon, I ask you this: are you willing to do this?"

Spend an entire year in the human world. Alone. Having no one to help him. All in search of answers that may or may not even be there. In short, it seemed rather illogical, as well as suicidal, from what sensei told him.

But it was better than nothing. He _needed_ to know. Even if it killed him.

"Yes."

Karatenmon smiled.

"I had a feeling you would say that."

After that, it was something of a blur. Sensei had told him of a friend of his, Shamanmon, who would be willing to help him pass through into the human world. Unfortunately, Shamanmon had, unexpectedly, died and been reborn into an Elfmon. A rather odd occurrence too, since Shamanmon seemed to be perfectly healthy.

Fotrunately, Shamanmon also happened to have a student, Joltmon, who knew how to perform the spell as well. However, despite her naturally carefree attitude, through the entire preparation, she seemed uneasy. Strabimon's best guess was that she knew full well that this was his first time in the digital world. As such, he decided it was best if he didn't tell her that he was going into the human world against the wishes of the highest power of the Digital World.

Outwardly, he retained his usual stoic and reserved persona in order to not draw attention to what he was plotting to accomplish. Inwardly, he was almost shaking with a nearly addictive mix of excitement and fear.

Soon enough, the preparations were done. The spell was complete, and only needed to be performed. He could come by the magic shop around noon.

Never in his life had he felt such a volatile mix of emotions than on that day.

On one hand, it meant leaving everything he knew and everyone he loved behind. He couldn't even properly say goodbye to any of his friends. Not even his own brother. He only hoped that the letter he left in his room would be a sufficient enough explanation for all of them.

On the other hand, it was a new adventure, an unknown world. A new frontier, so to speak. He could find clues that could lead him to finding the elusive answer to his question. And the human world, though foreign, could actually be an interesting and, dare he say it, _fun _experience.

As he was placing his light knife in his pocket (he still may need weaponry to defend himself, after all) Karatenmon entered his room.

"I see you're almost ready."

"Yes, sensei."

"I assume you've got at least one weapon on your person."

"Of course, sensei."

"And you are aware that you must not reveal yourself as a digimon to anyone in the human world."

"I am aware, sensei."

Karatenmon nodded his approval.

"Good. Now before you go, there's one more thing I must tell you."

Strabimon looked up at his mentor.

"I know I told you that you will spend the year in solitude in the human world."

"You did, sensei."

"However, that does not have to be the case."

"Sensei?"

Karatenmon let at least 5 seconds pass before he continued.

"I told you that humanity does not know of our existence and that it is best that you do not reveal yourself as a digimon. Yet, I have a feeling that you will unwitiingly break this rule."

"But I would never-"

"Relax, Strabimon. I said 'unwittingly', did I not?"

At this point, Karatenmon had kneeled down to Strabimon's level and placed both of his hands on his student's shoulders.

"You are young, Strabimon. You haven't seen the full extent of your own world or any of the human world. You have a lot to learn in this lifetime and it would be best if you had someone alongside you to help you with it."

"Joltmon will be coming with me."

"True, and I have no doubt that you two will watch over each other. But Joltmon knows nothing of the human word and neither do you. Something tells me that, somehow, you will stumble along someone in the human world that will help you gain the qualities you as an individual, naturally lack. If you do, help them in whatever way you can. They may very well surprise you."

And with that, Strabimon left to go to Joltmon's shop, supplies packed, stride steady, and heart pounding.

Which now brought him to the very moment, the very question, at hand.

Was he truly and honestly sure about this?

"Yes."

* * *

_And so it begins…_


	2. Chapter 1

_I do not own Digimon._

* * *

_Chapter 1_

_It's Kind of a Funny Story…_

* * *

"Are you sure?"

What a short, blunt question. And, true to its structure, it held such little weight behind it.

"Yes, Mom, I'm sure. The school's only a couple of blocks away. It should take me at least 20 minutes each day, back and forth, tops."

Kaya Sanders spoke to her mother like she was talking about the weather, and not about her mode of transport to her middle school.

It was officially her 229th day of 7th grade and at least 6 days closer to spring break. Usually the weather around April tended to fluctuate a little, hence her mother's concern ("What if it rains? Or it gets too windy? You'll be out in that mess for a good 20 minutes."). However, the weather seemed to be compliant for once, and as such, the 12 year old decided to take advantage of this good fortune and stroll her way to school, instead of getting on what she and her friends dubbed the "Ratchet Bus". Besides, there were plenty of cool shops and good food places along the route to Alexander Fuller Middle School. If she happened to have extra money and some time to spare, she could always stop by some of them and by something. Anyways, she knew a lot of her schoolmates and a couple of her friends lived along her route, so it wasn't like she was walking on a road with strangers.

Charlotte Sanders eyed her daughter for long moment before finally conceding. "Alright, if you insist. But if you get soaked, don't come home crying to me."

The 43 year old woman, dressed in a particularly stylish and professional blue A-line dress, went to the coat closet near the front door of their apartment. "I won't be home 'till ten, and you already saw Dad leave for a business trip. So behave yourself and make sure you do your homework. Dinner's in the fridge. It's spaghetti."

Despite her no-nonsense tone, Charlotte was fairly concerned about leaving her only child in the apartment for a good number of hours by herself. Though in recent years (due to the demands of her job as a financial adviser's analyst) it happened more often, it didn't mean she had to like it.

Kaya just sighed. "Mom, I'm going to be fine. It's not like I'm a little two year old."

"I know, I know. But I'm your mother, okay? I'm allowed to worry about you."

The girl simply rolled her eye, but the hints of a smile were showing under her façade of typical teenage annoyance.

"I know."

"Love you sweetie."

"Love you too, Mom."

And with that, Charlotte Sanders left the apartment to earn more money, leaving a 12 year old who had still yet to get out of pajamas and get dressed.

Kaya gave herself a solid minute, before dashing all the way to her room, put her iPod on full blast, and hopped into her shower to the beat of "Walking On Sunshine".

After a quick 5 minutes, she got out just as fast as she got in, dried herself off, and quickly went in search for an outfit suitable for a 70 degree day, finally settling on black skinny jeans, converse sneakers, a white t-shirt with the word 'Freedom' painted artfully onto it, and underneath it a black camisole.

She didn't even bother to check herself in the mirror, instead choosing to sprint to her kitchen to grab her backpack, grabbing a fistful of pencils and stuffing them in. Once getting all her things in order, she finally allowed herself to take a look at her reflection by way of the window.

A girl with medium brown skin, hinting at her biracial heritage, and brown eyes so dark they could pass for black stared back. The skinny jeans did absolutely no favors for creating the illusion of a figure for her. If anything, the only thing they accentuated was her height, which was above average for most girls her age and made her stand out in a crowd. The camisole peeked out of her white shirt by way of the straps on her shoulders, giving her something of a rebel look, exacerbated by the blue streaked, flat ironed raven black hair that fell a couple of inches below her shoulders. All in all, she was a relatively pretty girl; not undeniably beautiful and not horrifically ugly.

Kaya Sanders took a good hard look at her reflection. At times, it amazed her. Other times, it disgusted her. Today, she felt neither extreme. It could be better and it could be worse. In short, she felt okay.

Smiling for good measure, mirror-her smiled back. In that instant, she became a lot prettier than before.

* * *

After her 20 minute trek to school, Kaya came onto the campus of Alexander Fuller Middle School. For a school located in the south side of Brooklyn, AFMS was a fairly large one, with a grassy lawn for students to come and socialize before, after, and (for those small populace of delinquents within the student body) during classes. Considering it was a fairly warm and sunny day, the lawn was practically buzzing with the various people and conversations.

"Did you see what she…"

"Oh my God, really…"

"I heard that…"

"What happened with…"

"That's so…"

As different snippets of varying dialogues passed through the air, Kaya managed to make her way to her destination, marked with two girls engaged in their own chit chat, apparently (from what Kaya could hear) about Ms. Markov's History test later in the week.

"I'm going to fail!"

"You're not going to-"

"I'm going to fail and then die on the spot!"

"I'm sure you're not-"

"That's what they'll write on my gravestone, Mali! 'Here lies Lucinda Rosalina Marquez. She died in the most boring and embarrassing way possible: failing a history test!'"

"Lulu, don't you think you're overreacting?"

Kaya jumped in.

"Mali's right Lu. Keep this up and you're going to give yourself an aneurism before practice today."

At this two girls, one dressed overly girly and the other in a relaxed outfit, turned to face Kaya.

Lulu, the one currently having an apparent mental breakdown, looked as terrified as before.

"I'm trying, Kai, really, but Markov's test is Wednesday and my game's on the same day and I still need to prove to the high school coach that I can make J.V next year even though I'll be in 8th grade and Markov's gonna fail me so I can't play because she hates my guts but I need to play so I can play J.V next year and if I don't then I won't play for the rest of high school and I won't get a scholarship to any schools and I'll have to work at McDonald's because my grades will be so bad that I won't get into ANY colleges and I hate working with grease because it's SO disgusting and it messes up my hair and oh my God, I'll have to wear a HAIRNET and- "

By this time, both Kaya and Mali had gotten rather tired of Lulu's rant. Kaya gave a signal to her cousin to plug her ears. Mali just sighed. Was it just her, or did this happen _every_ Monday?

"LULU! YOU ARE NOT GOING TO FAIL, OKAY?! YOU WILL GO INTO THAT TEST AND KICK ITS PROVERBIAL ASS AND YOU WILL PLAY THAT GAME AND KICK THE OTHER TEAM'S LITERAL ASS, OKAY?! AND MARKOV CAN JUST STICK HER SORRY FACE IN SOME WHIPPED CREAM!"

As Mali looked on, with Lulu eventually taking deep breaths and calming herself down, she a thought came to her, which she eventually vocalized.

"Is it just me, or has absolutely no one seen Courtney this weekend?"

Kaya, now done with taming the pink, girly beast, and Lulu, now over with her weekly freak out, both pondered over this question.

"Now that you mention it, she did tell us that she had to do something in Manhattan this week."

"I wonder what it is?"

"Guys, relax. She was probably visiting her dad this week."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that."

It did make sense. After all, Courtney's parents had had a divorce when she was around seven, so it wasn't uncommon for her to be there for one weekend and be gone the next.

As the trio began to talk about less pressing subject matters ("Did you guys see that new movie? I heard that it was so awesome!" "I kind of like the play better, honestly." "Of course, half of our theatre duo would say that." "Shut up, Kaya."), the bell signaling the 4 minutes time limit before 1st period rang. Immediately, all three girls began rushing to their shared 1st period: Math.

Rushing to Room 229, the girls made their way in to the classroom. The teacher wasn't there yet, so the kids in the class were taking the opportunity to chit chat some more before the beginning of 7 straight hours of hell.

Going into their respective seats, Kaya, Mali, and Lulu resumed their previous conversation. Which didn't last particularly long, since Ms. Falloway came into the classroom not even 30 seconds after they had begun.

"Good morning, class."

"Good morning, Ms. Falloway."

For most kids, Math class was usually their most hated class of the day. However, the students of Ms. Falloway's Algebra class often found themselves liking the class, if not because of the actual subject, then because of the teacher and her rather warm disposition.

Said teacher smiled and began to take out her lesson plan. But, as if she was just recalling something, "Oh and Ms. Sanders, Principal McKnight wanted to see you in his office. Apparently, something about sticky tack, balloons, and whipped cream." Ms. Falloway gave a knowing smile in Kaya's direction.

The entire class turned to stare at the blue streaked preteen in question. All except Mali, who looked at her with widened amethysts orbs in shock.

"You didn't."

"I did."

"Oh my God, Kaya, you are so freaking evil."

Mali verbally scolded Kaya, but her smile and glinting eyes told a different story.

Later, when Kaya came back to class she came with a detention sentence over her head and a successful prank under belt, as well as the respect of her classmates for pulling it off against Mrs. Markov, the most evil and despicable teacher at school.

* * *

_And so we meet our other protagonist..._


	3. Chapter 2

_I do not own Digimon. I just own my Oc's. _

* * *

_Chapter 2_

_Prisoners of the System_

* * *

Ah, detention. What kind of school experience would it be without it?

Kaya pondered this as she sat in the art room, which also doubled as the detention room.

It was messy, with paint splatters seen in every single corner of the room, up to and including the ceiling. Charcoal smudges could be seen on the walls as well, some by accident, and others on purpose, with signatures and drawings of random things differentiating the two. The tables all had at least one sculpture on them, probably due to the workings of the 3-D art class. Because it was used as an art studio, the room had excellent lighting, perfect for capturing the glow of the afternoon sun and wonderful tool for lessons on creating shadows on paper.

All in all, not the worst place in the world to have detention.

Kaya used her extra time to finish the homework she had begun in lunch. She did have a good two hours, so she might as well use them.

As she made her way to the last assignment on her list (science), Kaya heard the door open and looked up to see who it was.

She smiled.

"Hey, _Annie_."

The redhead scowled.

"Shut up, Kaya."

Ellie Lancaster was girl known for two things: her bright red hair, and her ferocious temper.

In all honesty, Kaya knew if Ellie wasn't friends with her and the others, she'd probably release this legendary temper of hers on all of them. And if she did, they would've all been dead before 4th grade.

Luckily, Ellie _was_ their friend, so Kaya just kept on smiling.

"Oh come on, El. You were practically born for the part."

"Whatever. So how did your prank on that bitch Markov go?"

"Splendid, darling. Just splendid. And what about your revenge against your boyfriend, Michael?"

"He's not my boyfriend! Anyways, it went just as planned, meaning that pretty boy got the ultimate punishment."

"Magnificent as usual, Ellie."

Conversing during their shared penance, the two friends came to a subject that had been the talk of the town for the past few months.

"Did you hear about that new explosion on Saturday?"

"I think the entire freaking United States heard about it, Kai. It was in the Bronx, right?"

"Yeah. Apparently, it caused a building to burn up in flames."

"You're joking."

"No shit, Sherlock. But really, should you be this surprised?"

"True. Weird stuff like this has been happening for months."

"Who do you think's responsible?"

"Personally, I think its terrorists, but with little to no lead, I can't really be sure."

"Some people think that it could be one of the major gangs."

"Can't be. The police should've been able to crack down on them by_ now_. Besides, the events are either too subtle or have too much damage."

"True. You know, they found something weird at the Bronx explosion."

"What?"

"Some sort of bluish sludge. It smelled awful, as if it were from the actual sewer."

"How did shit from the sewer make its way above ground?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."

* * *

Strabimon was…annoyed, to say the least.

It had been 6 weeks since he and Joltmon came to the human world. And so far, it had consisted of nothing but sheer grunt work.

On their third day in the human world, they had found an Agumon causing trouble with the local population. Strabimon, being in the vicinity, put the Agumon in his place and, with Joltmon's assistance, sent him through a portal back to the digital world. A portal that neither of them could pass through.

When Strabimon asked Joltmon if digimon came to the human world often, she replied that some did, but never had they tried to cause trouble. So, this case was particularly ominous.

As the days went on, the two found that not only were digimon in the human world in such large number, they also happened to be the cause of several occurrences which had a plagued this city for a good number of months, before Strabimon and Joltmon even came here. Though none had actually revealed themselves to any humans, it was becoming apparent that these digimon did not _care_ if they were found out. And, more importantly, were causing the humans fear and grief _on purpose._

All of this resulted in more time hunting down and sending back these rogue digimon, and less time searching for any answers or leads to answers.

So yes, Strabimon was annoyed.

Oh well. At least he could take out his frustration on the idiots who were foolish enough to cause trouble.

Sitting on one of a multitude of boxes in an abandoned warehouse, located in a place in the city called 'Broncs', Strabimon pondered over several things, mainly how things were faring back home. He thought about his brother, his friends, his sensei, and his life before in general.

These musings were put to a particularly resounding pause by one excruciatingly noisy digimon.

"HEY! STRABIMON! QUIT BEING ALL EMO AND ANGSTY WOLF AND SEE WHAT I GOT!"

The digimon in question sighed, but he complied, jumping from the mount of boxes and landing gracefully onto the ground.

For a student of Shamanmon, a digimon known for his rather quiet and insightful temperament, Joltmon was incredibly _loud._ She hated order and authority in any way, shape, or form, and had the mouth of sailor. With all of that, in conjunction with her rather spirited attitude, Strabimon honestly could not figure out how she was Shamanmon's student.

He also could not help but note how _small_ she was. Granted, she was only a rookie, but he was too and he was significantly larger in stature than she was. However, this was to Joltmon's advantage in the human world. She was a digimon with an appearance similar to an exotic dog or a fox. However, unlike a Renamon, she walked on all fours, with her front and back legs covered in white fur, also coming in as a ruff around her neck. The rest of her was covered in yellow fur, with spiky yellow fringe around her tail. Her ears, yellow as well, were rather large, but proportional to her tiny body, and tiny black eyes gave her the appearance of a seriousness that was not at all present. All in all, her appearance and size allowed her to walk around freely in the human world and pass as a stray exotic dog. Strabimon, on the other hand, had to stay indoors during the day, and walk within the shadows at night, due to his anthropomorphic canine appearance.

As Strabimon looked on at his companion, he thought she looked utterly ridiculous, slurping what she called an 'icey' and wearing a green crown thing on top of her head, which served to only make her look smaller than she already was.

"You want my 'icey'?

"No, but thank you for offering it."

"Ugh, you're no fun. Why do you have to be such a kill joy? Come on, try it. I promise you, you'll like it. It tastes AMAZING!"

"No thank you."

"Then why not go out to the park with me? There's a lot of awesome stuff that humans do there! It looks like a lot of fun."

"Joltmon, I cannot afford to go out in broad daylight. Though your appearance allows you to blend in fairly well, mine does not. If I were to go out, I would only scare people."

"Oooooh, yeah right.."

Another thing about Joltmon: she loved to socialize. With just about anyone and anything within a mile radius. She talked and talked so much, that Strabimon did not doubt her ability to befriend a rock.

Strabimon did genuinely like Joltmon, and he found her personality rather refreshing. It was just that he had…difficulty talking to people. It was his greatest fault so to speak. Back home, his friends, and even his brother Shisamon found it to be a tremendous task to get him to utter at least a sentence. Flamon had even once said, word for word, "If Strabimon and a rock had a 'no speaking at all even during the frickin' apocalypse' contest, Strabimon would win. Hands down." It wasn't like he didn't like people, it was just that he rarely knew how to exactly phrase his words. As such, he found silence to be a much more comforting option.

Joltmon continued to plow on with her latest venture into the city, talking about tall buildings, squares that have something to do with clocks, and some woman named Lady Liberty whose appearance, Joltmon said, was similar to that of Ophanimon.

Strabimon half listened to Joltmon's never ending monologue (out of politeness) while the rest of his mind wandered in thought. This eventually led him to muse about their latest encounter with a rogue digimon. Or, rather, two.

They had been a duo consisting of an Impmon and a Raremon. The Impmon had been easy enough to send back home. The Raremon, on the other hand, was extremely difficult, simply because of the fact that, while Impmon had a body to transport back, Raremon, for all intents and purposes, was nothing but a giant mound of sludge given sentience. Any attack used on him ended in either being absorbed by him or giving him more power. In the end, he had caused so much trouble that he had caused the explosion that was the latest talk amongst the humans by inadvertently using his acid sludge attack on a gasoline tank.

After all of that mess, and then some, he and Joltmon _still_ hadn't managed to restrain him and send him back to the Digital World. He had gotten away by sliding into the city's sewer system. Strabimon suspected that he was still somewhere down there, since Raremon's appearance wasn't exactly discreet.

Internally, he sighed. He would have to scout the entire city to see where he would turn up. Later in the afternoon would do, he supposed.

* * *

_So, Strabimon's annoyed and Kaya's amused. Odd combination, but then again, that's how they're supposed to work._

_To those who were expecting that Strabimon would act more rude and cold like Kouji, you must keep in mind; this isn't Kouji we're dealing with. This is Strabimon, and, like anyone else, Strabimon has his own personality. Honestly, I feel the same goes for the other Legendary Warriors as well. True, they are similar to their human counterparts, but the differences are there, and for the similarities they share, there are probably differing reasons for these traits. Take Strabimon and Kouji. They're both quiet and stoic characters who tend to keep to themselves. However, Kouji developed these traits through feelings of resentment and detachment towards his father and stepmother, never knowing his birth mother, and never staying in one place for too long. Strabimon, on the other hand, is just naturally that way, due to the fact that, in a lot of ways, he's rather unsure of himself and shy around people._

_P.S- Kudos to anyone who gets what Joltmon is first referring to when she talks about her N.Y.C adventure (After the Icee, of course)._


	4. Chapter 3

_I do not own Digimon._

* * *

_Chapter 3_

_Best Friends and Cousins (Sisters)_

* * *

A good two hours later, Kaya found herself at the front steps outside the door of Alexander Fuller Middle School with her Ellie, Mali, and Courtney (who turned up later in the day during third period science). They were all currently waiting for the final member of their quintet, Lulu, who had soccer practice, and they refused to wait in the stands since the boys' soccer team also used the field, and Ellie had bad blood with some of the boys on that team (mainly Michael).

Whereas she and Ellie had stayed after for detention, Mali and Courtney had to practice for the upcoming Spring Musical, which was to be put on the day before Spring Break. Both were extremely excited for this particular play since it was a favorite of both of theirs, _Cinderella._ As fellow theatre geeks, the two of them were often called the Two Tortured Thespians by Kaya, Ellie, and Lulu. This nickname served to annoy Mali and Courtney to no end, which provided extra entertainment to the other three.

As her three friends talked about some topic that alluded her after the second sentence (Her habit of daydreaming), Kaya looked at the three girls beside her.

Ellie, as typical of a redhead, was a vivacious and spirited girl who took crap from no one, especially when it came to the films and videos she often liked direct and produce, or her various 'hackscapades' as she called them. Pale, creamy skin only served to bring out the bright ruby red of the voluminous hair that ended at her jaw in a cute bob, and the sparkling emerald of her wide, anime-like eyes. She was average in height and had a decent amount of curves that hit in all the right places, and, without a doubt, would only do her nothing but good in terms of dating when she got older. If it weren't for the fact that she had such a short fuse concerning her patience, Kaya guessed that Ellie would probably have been one of the most popular girls at school. However, Ellie's love for film, protest, hacking, and rebellion through filmography and digital jail breaking in general, made her have a great distaste for "the cultural pig sty" of this generation. This was made even more apparent by her taste in clothes. In this case, it was combat boots, dark wash skinny jeans, and a black T-shirt with the Rolling Stones logo on it, with a dark blue sleeveless draped vest, completing the number.

_If only her no show father could see her now…_

Courtney St. Clair, in contrast to the feisty hacker/director, was more quiet and sweet, true to her Louisiana roots. Her passion for theatre could only be rivaled by her love for cuisine, from all sorts of places. Be it crawfish from New Orleans, flan from Spain, or sosaties from South Africa, Courtney most likely had made it at least once. More often than not, Kaya and her friends found themselves eating at Courtney's place rather than a typical restaurant for kids their age on a Friday night (hey, it tasted good and it was free; what's not to love?).

The Southerner's honeyed nature was highlighted by her rather small stature; at 5'1", she was one of the shortest girls in the school. Yet, this seemed to be somewhat appropriate for her, since her overall appearance was quite ethereal. Blonde hair that was almost white in certain lights fell in soft waves all the way to her waist, and nearly ghostly skin that seemed to never tan, no matter how sunny it became, added to this image. Yet what pulled the description to a sharp and proper knot was Courtney's eyes. Big and bright, they were a shade of blue that reminded Kaya of sea glass.

With her fairy like appearance and benevolent nature, it made some sense that Courtney often dressed as such. Today, her outfit consisted of a muted yellow sundress and a light wash denim jacket. To top it all off, she wore strappy brown sandals with a white flower decorating each sandal.

If Courtney could be considered the heart of the group, Lulu the voice, and Ellie the mind, Mali was the soul. Always open to people and ideas of all kinds, Mali was something of a free spirit, who seemed to be able to make friends, or at least acquiantances, with almost anyone. She was only twelve, soon to be thirteen, but there were times that Mali (short for Malia) seemed to be older than that, with her moments of insight and wisdom. Maybe, Kaya grimly thought, it was due to the fact that, in a lot of ways, Mali _had_ to grow up faster than the rest of them.

Mali's mother, Mrs. Sanders' sister and Kaya's aunt, had married a Japanese man in the army, Takeshi Nakahara. Though they seemed to be complete opposites, their marriage was a happy one, resulting in three daughters. Unfortunately, the couple had died in a car accident on a rainy night, leaving 5 year old Macy (short for Misaki), 15 year old Renee, and 8 year old Mali as orphans. As a result, they spent 3 years living with the Sanders family, until Renee turned 18. After that, she was determined to keep up her parent's general store, which they had left to her in their will, in case anything were to happen to them. This resulted with the sisters moving out and back into their old apartment above the store, Renee doing college online, and Macy and Mali helping out whenever they had time.

There was a certain time in Kaya's life in which she feared for her cousin's own mortality. However, Mali always was a steady and sure person, and she came out of the tragedy stronger and even more sure of herself. Always the constant and rhythmic bass to the others' ever confusing mix of melodies, Kaya sometimes envied how her cousin seemed to have figured out the majority of life and its too often erratic changes.

In truth, few things could make Malia Nakahara act her age. Fortunately, this included theatre, the piano…and her best friends.

"You SO have a crush on Hugh Jackman."

"No I don't! I just think he's a good stage actor!"

"Suuure you do."

"Mali, it's not anything to be embarrassed about."

"Yeah, just because you practically have a fangirl celebrity crush on a smoking celebrity, doesn't mean you're a nerd. Well, maybe _you're_ a nerd, but that's just because you're _you._"

"I hate you guys so frickin' much…"

"Awww, you know you love us, O tortured thespian."

Said tortured thespian was, unlike her cousin, an enigmatic sort of beautiful. Her skin was a shade of brown like Kaya's, but it seemed to be a better fit on Mali, who seemed to glow golden on sunny days. Curly black hair ended at her shoulders, always silky and as dark as the midnight sky. Like her cousin, Mali was considered tall for her age (shorter than Kaya by a few centimeters) and she owned every damned inch. She walked with a sound stride and a relaxed stance, as if she realized that, for all the trouble middle school gave her, it wouldn't last. Her eyes were a bright shade of violet, naturally (if Kaya had a penny for how many times her cousin had been asked if they were contacts, she'd be the richest person in the world), which almost seemed to change shade with her mood. If Mali was sad, the violet would turn even deeper and murky. If she was pissed, which didn't happen often (a fact that Kaya and the rest of her friends were eternally grateful for), they looked as if they belonged to a demon straight from Hell. If she was happy, her eyes effervesced like amethysts.

True to her unorthodox outlook, Mali often dressed in what Lulu liked to call 'urban gypsy chic'. Her outfit for today consisted of a dusty rose blouse, skinny jeans, and black ballet flats.

Speaking of the non-present Lulu Lemon…

As Kaya had stated before, if Courtney was the heart, Ellie was the mind, and Mali was the soul, then Lucinda Rosalina Marquez was most definitely the voice.

Never one to get stuck in a bad mood, Lulu was essentially the product of what happens when a ray of sunshine, the life of the party, and the piñata of a quincenera had a threesome after a long night of clubbing. She was always upbeat and cheerful, often talking at a mile a minute pace. Girly and up to date on the latest trends, it always came as something of a shock to most people when they found out that Lulu was also a jock. And a very good one at that. Lulu was practically the top striker on the soccer team at AFMS, the Red Eagles. In truth, Lulu always had been something of a paradox. When the other girls on her team had come to visit her house for a hosted pizza party, they had been shocked to find that she was wearing a particularly stylish pink short sleeved blouse and a white flowing skirt. True, their teammate had always had a sunny disposition and an optimistic point of view, but they never expected their fellow Eagle to be this…_different_ when off the field.

Nevertheless, the soccer girls accepted their teammate's differences with grace. As long as she played well on the field, it didn't really concern them as to what she wore off the field.

Lulu's outfits certainly brought her much deserved attention, but they only accented what was already a stunning looking girl. Sleek, raven black hair that was naturally straight went to the small of her back, though it was often tied into a high ponytail worthy of a runway model. Her skin, which was light brown, in conjunction with her catlike amber eyes, gave her an exotic quality. She was fairly average in terms of height, but with confidence and glee practically oozing out of her, she might as well have been 6'3.

Off the soccer field earlier today, Lulu had worn a green v-neck with white skinny jeans and black sandals, with a gold necklace holding a small 'L' charm to add class to the look. However, at this moment, she was probably in her athletic wear.

"Hey guys!"

Speak of the devil…

"'Sup Lulu!"

"Hey, Lulu."

"Hi, Lu."

"Nice to see you, Lulu Lemon."

"Very funny, Kai. But oh my God, you would not _believe_ what coach made us do today…"

Lulu soon began a rant on how Coach Huntington worked them like slaves at practice, with the other girls listening closely. Ellie rolled her eyes, Courtney giggled, Mali sighed, and Kaya smirked. All in good nature and years of shared memories.

A wannabe revolutionary film director and hacker, a sugar sweet southern belle with mad kitchen skills, a piano playing orphan that made the Dalai Lama look like a politician, a future model slash soccer jock with more pep than most cheerleaders, and a fun-loving, sarcastic writer with a knack for getting into trouble. They were, in truth, an odd combination, when one took a glance.

But that was just a glance.

If people bothered to see the finer details, they would see many differing and interconnecting threads. Like how a redhead first befriended a Latina in the first grade after she was bullied for her frilly dress. Or how a writer learned strength from witnessing an orphan persevere during her life's cruelest time. Or how that same orphan and her sisters always came home to a freshly cooked meal sent from a couple of blocks down by a kind southern belle. Or how that southern belle slowly gained more confidence by watching how the redhead stumbled and fell, but always managed to get back up with a smile on her face. Or how that rebel redhead learned how beautiful she actually was through the stories and tales of a smiling writer. Or how that writer learned how to smile from the girl with the sunniest smile in the world.

Yes, they were, different. Yes, they were crazy. Yes, they argued. But at the end of the day, they were also the closest thing any of them had to a family. And for that, Kaya was grateful.

* * *

_I know it's something of a filler, but I felt it would be beneficial if I established the bonds Kaya already has before I start developing the ones that'll come in later._


	5. Chapter 4

_I do not own Digimon._

* * *

_Chapter 4_

_Sewer Blues_

* * *

The five girls on the stoop at the front of AFMS continued their exchange, which consisted of Mia Hamm, Spike Lee, Martha Stewart, Tchaikovsky, and Maya Angelou, until they realized it was getting closer and closer to 4. At that, the girls rose from the steps on which they sat for a good 30 minutes.

"_Dios mio_, it so late! My abuelita's going to _kill _me!"

Ellie rolled her eyes at the Latina. "She's not going to kill you Lu, she's too old to. If anything, she'd probably die from trying."

"Oh whatever, Ellie. Or should I say, _Annie_," Lulu retorted mischievously.

"Oh hell no, not you too."

"See, Ellie. I told you, you're practically twins," Kaya added.

"Guys, come on, quit teasing her. It's mean," Courtney scolded, but with a smile on her face.

"Besides," Mali added, "we have to get going. It's a quarter to 4."

At that reminder, all five girls went in their respective directions, Ellie and Mali to the east, since they lived relatively close to each other, and Courtney and Lulu to the west, since they lived in the same apartment complex. Kaya would have gone with Mali and Ellie, since she lived a couple of blocks down from Ellie, but she had remembered in that moment that she had forgotten her notebooks in her locker, as well as her unfinished pantoum for Creative Writing 101. As such, she had to trek all the way to her locker, located on the second floor of the school.

Kaya eventually completed this trying journey of 2 and half minutes to the second floor of her school, which included a good flight of stairs, to her locker. She practically stuffed all of her supplies into her backpack which, considering how packed the bag already was, took her another solid minute. After that, she began to walk down the stairs and back to her own home in leisure. Her mother wouldn't be home until ten and her father had a business trip, which lasted until Friday. So, she didn't really feel the need to get back home in a rush, unlike her friends.

Or, rather, she _hadn't _felt the need to get back home in a rush, until she heard a noise. It sounded like glass shattering.

Meaning that either a student or teacher had dropped a giant and totally random glass object…or someone had broken into the school. And, judging from the continuing symphony of slams and crashes, they weren't leaving anytime soon.

So. She had, it seemed, two options. She could run and get the hell out of there. Or she could go and see what was happening, _then _get the hell out of there.

Well.

Nobody ever said that she was the _reasonable one _or the _smart one_. Those titles belonged to Mali and Ellie, respectively.

Racing down the stairs toward all the noise, backpack conveniently forgotten in her locker, the blue streaked girl searched for the source of the sounds.

_Where could it-_

Her train of thought was promptly interrupted by a resounding _crash_ that seemed almost too loud for its magnitude, as if it was echoed.

_Wait, echoes? Duh, Kaya, the gym!_

Going into the direction of the gymnasium, the preteen noted how awful it smelled as she got closer to the gym, in addition to how much louder the sounds became, until she finally came to double doors.

Deciding that she only needed to see what in the name of hell was going on, she peeked through the window. And blinked. Then she looked again. And blinked. Again.

Because, there was no way that this was real. She had to be dreaming. She _had _to be.

A giant purple sludge monster thing (which Kaya was going to bet was the cause of the awful stench) was rampaging against two significantly smaller opponents. One looked like an extremely rare breed of dog that a typical snobby, rich Manhattan woman with a lot of international friends would have, with spike yellow and white fur and large yellow ears. It looked as if it was producing…_electricity?_ Yes, electricity, from its ears all the way to its tail. It was ramming and attacking the giant sludge mound, but to no avail it seemed, since the attacks seemed to not only not faze the monster, it was as if it was giving it more power. Its partner in crime was apparently a dog-person thing, with blue and white fur, wearing white pants and having the head of what looked like a wolf. Unlike, its companion, the wolf like creature relied on skill and reflex, with the occasional attack of what appeared to be light manifested. He was practically a freaking ninja, with the way he fought.

_Okay. You're dreaming, Kaya. That's all this is. You probably just fell asleep during detention or something and Ellie's yelling at you to wake up. Yeah, that's it._

Whatever excuses the girl had made for these happenings, they were all soundly put to rest when she saw a green sludge substance heading straight for the door.

She yelped in surprise, backing into the wall behind her. The acidic substance practically melted the door, and any other object it came into contact to.

Realizing a melted door equaled an open door, and that an open door meant that they could see her, Kaya made her way to the nearest classroom, slammed the door shut, and locked it. She hadn't even run that much, but the events that had transpired just moments before had her heart beating faster than she ever thought possible and her mind trying to make sense of what was happening.

The sounds came closer until she knew, without a doubt, that the three creatures had taken their battle out of the gym and into the hallway (Electric Shock, Light Kick, and Acid Sludge, she heard shouted). At some point, she rationalized, they would end up in one of the classrooms.

And considering that the sounds of struggle and attacks were coming closer to her location, they may very well end up in the classroom she was currently in.

_I'm gonna die. Oh my God, I'm gonna die._

Hearing a loud grunt and someone shout "Joltmon", Kaya dared to take another look out of the small rectangular window of the classroom door.

The small yellow dog was lying on the floor next to the extremely thrashed lockers. Little sparks were occasionally flaring up from its body, but Kaya knew that the creature was down for the count.

The wolf creature, who looked concerned for the dog, trained his eyes on the sludge monster and let out a low growl. At that particular moment, the blue streaked girl prayed to Jesus Christ that he wasn't going to try to kill _her_ if he found her cowered in the corner of a classroom.

The two creatures somehow made their way to the second floor, where the artist was just minutes before.

_Now's my chance, _she thought. She could get out of there as quickly as she had come in. She just had to run to the front door and get off of the campus and take a cab back home. This would all just be bad dream that would be gone by morning, or at least just another story on the news tomorrow morning.

She was planning to do just that. But as she was about to sprint her way to the front doors, she took a glance at the yellow dog like thing. Kaya immediately regretted it.

She was beat up. Not just 'a couple of bruises, its nothing, it'll be gone by the end of the week' beat up. She (Kaya at least_ figured_ it was a girl) was utterly and indubitably_ thrashed._ Also, a strange ring was appearing around her body. It sort of reminded the preteen of the computer code that Ellie loved to mess with during her 'hackscapades'.

She needed to get out. She needed to get out _now, _while she had the chance.

But still, "Joltmon" was apparently hurt. Badly. If Kaya just left her there, there was a chance that she could die.

God, she _hated_ being a nice person.

Picking her up with both arms, the blue streaked girl carried "Joltmon" to the nurse's office down the hall. She pretty much ripped it to shreds, trying to find some bandages and witch hazel.

_Come on, come on, where the hell do you keep the damn bandages lady?! I don't have that much time._

As if reminding her of this very real fact, the ceiling above her shook, with small bits and pieces crumbling.

_ Ughhh…_

Finally finding some wrap bandages and a bottle of witch hazel, the girl went to work on the unconscious yellow dog thing. It was admittedly shoddy work. She wasn't a nurse, after all. But it did manage to stop the bleeding, preventing blood loss.

Satisfied with her work, the blue streaked preteen began to make her way to the front doors. She needed to leave and she needed to leave _now_.

But fate was not kind to Kaya Sanders that day, because it apparently decided she hadn't had enough heart attacks in her short life.

Directly above her, the ceiling shook and began to give away. Running out of the way of the hole and whatever it decided to take down with it, Kaya hid in the hallway adjacent to the hall the nurse's office was.

The wolf thing from before fell from the hole and landed with a hollow _thud_. He looked tired, angry, and annoyed in a single facial expression. However, whatever breath he might have hoped to catch was caught in his throat as the sludge monster shot his green acid at him. Even tired, he seemed to have good reflexes. The girl honestly wouldn't be surprised if all this fighting was second nature to him.

Despite this, he was inevitably caught in green acid and skidded on the floor of the hallway. He tried standing up, but his left leg had shards of shrapnel and glass in it. He also had that same ring like the one that "Joltmon" had swirling around him as well. On top of all this, he was visibly tired and out of breath. Needless to say, he couldn't move, even if he wanted to.

The sludge monster was moving closer towards him, if he didn't move any time soon, he would be killed for sure.

They say that your life flashes before your eyes in the moments before you die. But in that moment, as she pushed the wolf out of the way of the sludge monster's killing blow, Kaya could have sworn the world was moving in slow motion.

* * *

Strabimon was going to die. He wasn't sure of a lot of things at that moment, but he was sure of that.

At least, he _thought _he was sure of that. Until a blue and black haired human girl shoved him out of the way of an attack.

The force of this shove sent the both of them tumbling down the hall until they both landed flat on their backs.

_What the…_

Strabimon sat up, attempting to keep himself from groaning in pain. The girl had sat up as well. Taking quick glance, Strabimon was surprised at her stature. For such a slight girl, she could hit with a decent amount of force.

The two of them looked at each other in shock, trying to gauge what exactly the other was thinking. However, before he could even actually thank her, she was practically dragging him with her, running from…what exactly?

A roar was heard from the opposite direction, in addition to someone screaming, "GET BACK HERE YOU HUMAN BITCH!"

_Right, Raremon…_

He was slowly, but surely, becoming cognizant of the situation once more. City. Search. Sewer. Crash. Raremon. Crash. Joltmon.

_ Joltmon…JOLTMON!_

The girl was still dragging him along, trying to get away from the giant sludge mound. Joltmon was nowhere in sight.

He needed to find her. He dragged her into this world. He wouldn't let her die here.

As soon as the girl brought him to a room she apparently thought was a decent hiding spot, Strabimon spoke.

"Where..where is..," he wheezed out.

The blue streaked girl looked apprehensive as he spoke. He couldn't really blame her. If he were in her position, he probably would have either killed the person in front of him, or ran in the other direction.

But she stayed. There was a good chance she could die, but she still stayed.

"…What?" she tentatively asked.

"Joltmon…where…is she?"

She had a perplexed look on her face for a moment, then an expression of realization.

"She's fine. She's bandaged up and…she's fine."

Strabimon nodded. He was about to say his thanks, but a noise beat him to the punch.

_Slam! Bang!_ "WHERE ARE YOU, LITTLE BITCH?!"

Raremon was seemingly referring to the human, since she muttered "Aw, shit," immediately after.

They stayed silent for a while, letting the sludge mound digimon pass by them. Once they were sure Raremon had passed, the wolf like digimon and the blue streaked preteen let out sighs.

Said preteen immediately got up and began to search around the room for something.

"What are you doing?"

"Looking for something to kill that thing with."

"Normal attacks don't work on him."

"What?! Why not?!" she quietly hissed.

"He doesn't have solid form. All there is to him is that mound. He is literally a giant pile of sewer sludge."

"Goddamit, then what the hell are…we…" She seemed to pause, as if forming an idea.

"So he's made of sludge."

"Yes."

"Just sludge?"

"As far as I know of, yes."

At Strabimon's last comment, the girl smirked.

"I have an idea."

Looking back on it, he would concede that it was stupid of him not to think of it before. Because, really, it made a lot of sense.

If Raremon was nothing but sewer sludge given sentience, then normal attacks wouldn't work on him. They were solid, so he could absorb them easily. However, if he was doused with liquid, it would break down his form until he was nothing but a purple, reeking puddle.

Just as the girl asked of him, Strabimon lured Raremon back into the large room called the 'jim'. He simply needed to gain his attention. In other words, just show up behind Raremon and insult him.

Now, as Strabimon made his way to the large room, he hoped to the gods of the Digital World that this plan made in haste would actually be effective.

Coming into the 'jim', Strabimon made sure Raremon was in the center of the room. Then, he gave the signal.

Almost immediately, the girl came out to pull a red switch and water began coming out of the ceiling.

Raremon began to laugh. "Ha! You think some stupid drops are going to kill me?! You got another thing- Huh?!"

At that point, Raremon was, slowly but surely, melting to the floor, his data showing, until he became nothing but a digi-egg.

Strabimon walked over to the digi-egg and picked it up. He'd have to ask Joltmon to open a portal to the Digital World when she regained consciousness. In the meantime, however, he had to get them out of here before the local authorities showed up. And he still had to thank that human girl for saving his life.

He was about to do just that.

But when he turned around to face her, she was nowhere in sight.

* * *

_So they finally meet._


	6. Chapter 5

_I do not own Digimon_

* * *

_Chapter 5_

_Déjà vu_

* * *

After school, Kaya Sanders walked home, ate dinner, washed up, and went to bed.

Or at least, she would've done that, had she not been attacked, thrashed, and reduced to a terrified mess while at the school. And by three weird monsters that looked like they belonged in a video game or sci-fi movie. With one of them calling her a bitch and pretty much aiming to kill her, no less.

But, she had, unfortunately. So she stuck to every single thing on her to-do list. Except the very last one.

In lieu of that, she simply laid down on her comforter, and stared at the ceiling, a million and one thoughts buzzing around in her mindscape.

_What the hell just happened…? _

Really. What did just happen?

Well, at least it explained all the weird events these past months. And the purple sewer substance from that explosion in the Bronx.

_But…_

It couldn't have been real. It just couldn't. Ninja wolves. Electric dogs. Sludge monsters. They ony existed in video games. Or movies. Or books. Or dreams. This was a dream. A horrible, realistic dream. It didn't matter that it felt real. Or that she had the scars to prove it. Or that she had seen her school demolished. Or that she helped one of the monsters. Or that she spoke with another. Or that she could almost smell the reeking sewer flesh one had emitted. Or that she had seen her entire life go by in slow motion when she had shoved the wolf out of the way and effectively saved his life. This was a sick, twisted dream that her demented, adrenaline rich mind had come up with. It was a dream. A dream. A dream. A dream. A goddamned fucking shitty ass ugly horrifying -_Oh my God it was real_\- DREAM!

With that, the blue streaked preteen got off of her comforter, stood straight up, and took a deep breath.

"It was a dream. It was nothing but a bad dream."

Kaya felt like the world's greatest liar the moment she had said these words.

* * *

So.

It turns out his master was right, after all. He did reveal his existence to a human. Inadvertently, of course.

All while he had still yet to _figure out_ his own existence.

This both worried him, and piqued his curiosity.

The girl was caught in the crossfire. She could have died. Either by Raremon or he and Joltmon by accident. Yet, she stayed and helped them. She may have been stupid and not have been aware of these facts concerning her own mortality. But something about her told Strabimon that she knew all too well what she was risking.

These thoughts protruded his mind as he brought Joltmon back to the warehouse. The girl hadn't been lying. Joltmon was fine. And, if the bandages were anything to go by, it was due to her.

When he and Joltmon had gotten back to the warehouse, and Joltmon had regained consciousness, Strabimon had relayed the events that occurred when she was out. Joltmon had not taken it particularly well.

"OH MY GODS!"

"Joltmon, calm-"

"We were SPOTTED!"

"Yes, but-"

"By a HUMAN!"

"Joltmon, I'm not sure if-"

"They're going to KILL US!"

"They're not going to-"

"OH MY GODS, THEY'RE GOING TO KILL US! OR JAIL US! DO HUMANS EVEN HAVE DUNGEONS?!"

"No they do not, but-"

"THEN WHAT DO THEY HAVE?! WHAT IF WHAT THEY HAVE IS WORSE THAN DUNGEONS?! I CAN'T SURVIVE SOMETHING LIKE A DUNGEON, OR WORSE THAN ONE!"

"I think you're jus-"

"I DON'T WANT TO DIE YOUNG! I'M SO SORRY MOMMA! I SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO YOU! I PROMISE IN MY NEXT LIFE I'LL BE A DOCTOR LIKE YOU WANTED ME-"

Joltmon's tirade was interrupted by Strabimon kneeling down and taking hold of both of her shoulders.

"Joltmon, first off, yes we were spotted. And yes, she did run off. But the human authorities didn't come until several hours later. Meaning that she didn't call them over. This also implies that, for whatever reason, she didn't tell anyone. So no, they are not going to jail us or kill us. And though they don't have dungeons in this world, whatever they _do_ have, it can't be any worse."

"Oh, ok…But why did she just run off?"

"Try looking at from her perspective. You are minding your own business, living a relatively peaceful life, when you find three strange beings attempting to kill each other. By the time this has been settled, you have helped to bandage one, have almost been killed by another, and are left with yet another one which you know nothing of. For all you know, they may mean no harm to you. On the other hand, they may very well try to kill you. Now consider all of this and ask yourself what exactly you would do if you were in a similar situation."

"Well I…I mean…It's not as if…ugh, fine. You have a point. But still. Why didn't she tell anyone? I mean, if I were her, I would go running and screaming my head off and tell the first person I see."

"I…"

That was definitely a perplexing question. Why _didn't_ she tell anyone? After all, it was a reasonable course of action. But, then again, a lot of things about this girl were strange. And not just because she was human.

"I don't know."

* * *

_Don't worry, they'll meet up again. And you can count on there being a couple shocks in that reunion as well._

_Oh and as an answer to Best OC Maker for how Raremon couls survive the sewers, but not the sprinklers: the sewers are mixed in with all the waste and putrid junk that are common with all sewers, not just water. So Raremon could survive that, because he is made of all that junk. However, without all the grossness and only water, that causes him to melt._


	7. Chapter 6

_Chapter 6 _

_Daydreams…_

* * *

On warm spring days, the streets of New York City were bursting with the diverse sights, sounds, and smells of different lives intersecting and in constant motion. This changed with colder or wetter days, when it seemed that life, though still bustling, was fewer, and in less of hurry and more in a state of weariness.

The skylines of the city, in contrast to its streets were more constant in its days and seasons. Sometimes it rained. Sometimes it shined. But never did it bustle or burst with life. Here, life did nothing but bide its time, shifting and changing as slowly as it allowed.

This was a realization Strabimon reached while leaping from rooftop to rooftop in the part of the city the people here called 'brook-lin'.

Looking at the city from this view point made him marvel at the tall buildings, called 'skyscrapers', the numerous shops along every street, the scent of smoke and cuisine that was at once strange and intoxicating, and the little patches of green used as parks. All encompassed inside an almost never ending concrete jungle.

Strabimon wondered if all of the human world looked like this, so foreign and so unlike the vast mountains, plains, hills and forests he was used to in the Digital World. Compared to back home, where everything was open and no one particularly struggled for want of much of anything, it seemed humanity existed solely to struggle. They were all so close in proximity to each other, it would amaze him if there was such a thing called solitude in this world. Whereas the Digital World burst in color, this world seemed to be nothing but shades of grey, with more dark colors added to the mix.

But this was not the most miserable aspect of the Human World. The humans themselves were a fragile race, both in physicality and, from what he had seen, mentality. They stole from each other, kept secrets from one another, hurt each other (with words or with weapons; different wounds, same effect), and seemed wary of their very shadows. Fear, and sadness were in many of their eyes, and few were willing to go out of the way to help another down on his luck, for fear of his own person. Yes, if Strabimon were to decide, the humans were the most miserable beings he had ever encountered, and in many ways, he felt genuine empathy for them.

In other ways, however, he envied them.

Despite being weak in physicality, some humans seemed to transcend their fault of mental breakability. They understood the hardships of the world, so they did their best to live as they could. Despite the many who committed vices against one another, more often than not, they were out of anger or disappointment in a person they loved, or out of a necessity to live another day. Some made sure to repair those wounds, and those who couldn't at least attempted to live decently never repeat their crime. Though many held dread and melancholy in their eyes, many more held hope and a desire to simply be happy with what they had. In a world of greys, they managed to find and, if need be, create color. They had more to struggle against, but that seemed to be only a test, of whether or not they would rise to that challenge and surpass their limits, or fall prey to the typical "Only the strong succeed" adage in which many digimon whole heartedly believed. They seemed to act out every fabric of their being, whether for better or for worse, in their relatively short lives. They only had one, after all. As a result, though digimon lived more in terms of numbers and chronology, humanity seemed to live more concerning matters of the heart.

So really, _was _humanity such a miserable race? Or was it digimon that were to be pitied?

Strabimon debated the merits and sides of this argument while continuing his trek, 'strolling' through this strange world, in a strange city, in an even stranger quarter called 'brook-lin'.

The only conclusion he could make from this internal debate: Humans were as strange and paradoxical as the world in which they lived. Like that blue streaked human girl. The wolf like digimon's thoughts to the human girl who, just a few days ago, had helped to heal Joltmon and save his life.

She most definitely was strange. However, something told him that she was considered to be an oddity even amongst an odd enough race. After all, most humans had either blond, black, brown, or red hair, on occasion. Never before had he seen a human with blue hair. Granted, it was blue hair mixed in with black, but that did nothing to alter the fact that it was unordinary.

In addition to her unusual appearance, there was also the more pressing matter. Why hadn't she told anyone what she had seen? He had, at first, thought it was out of shock, and that she would eventually tell someone within a couple of hours. But those hours had passed and had turned into days, and she had yet to inform anyone of what she saw. He also considered the possibility of her actually seeking to gain a reward from this fiasco, withholding what she knew so she would be paid more. But she didn't seem to be the type to stoop that low. And then there was the third option: she had withheld what she had seen because she simply didn't _want _to tell anyone.

This posed a rather perplexing problem. If she wasn't telling anyone, did that mean she was an ally? Or was she a loose end that was just waiting for the right moment to inform someone? On one hand, she could be a good source of information on this world, could help him figure out his own personal dilemma, and maybe, just maybe, be a friend. On the other hand, she could wish nothing but harm on him and Joltmon, striving to get rid of these terrifying monsters from her world. In either case, he'd have to do_ something. _But finding her and talking to her again could prove difficult, given the circumstances under which they met, and he absolutely refused to simply 'get rid' of her. Digimon at least could be reincarnated, if you didn't destroy their digi-egg, but humans could not. They only had one life, and then they were gone forever. No matter how dangerous it became for him or Joltmon, Strabimon absolutely refused to permanently end the life a human, consequences be damned.

Weighing the options in his mind, Strabimon almost didn't hear a vaguely familiar voice in the midst of a conversation down in the street. Almost.

"I can't believe the school got shut down."

"And by another 'incident' too. Now _that_ can't be a coincidence."

"I think we've already established that Lu. The point is that stuff like this has been going on for months and we_ still_ don't know who or what's causing it."

"I have to admit, it's kind of scary. What do you think, Kaya?"

"I…just think it's weird."

The last voice in the conversation caught the digimon's attention. It sounded just like her.

Jumping into a secluded alleyway, Strabimon strained to listen to the dialogue of the girl (who was apparently named 'Kaya') and her friends.

"Well, look on the bright side. We have no school until they can repair the major damage to the school, so we have an extended spring break. And since they don't really know when it's going to be done, it could take longer than two weeks."

"Oh! I didn't think about that! So that pretty much means we have a super duper long vacation that doesn't end for a while! Meaning more fun, more parties, and more shopping!"

"You do realize this also means that they need to make up school days because of this, right? Meaning a longer school year and less time for summer vacation."

"Oh, quit being so down, Ellie. At least we have more time to ourselves now."

"Why, Courtney, I thought it was common knowledge that I was the Queen of Pessimism?"

"I thought you said, and I quote, 'I am the reigning Queen of Sarcasm.' Never have I heard you say that you also held dominion over pessimism. In fact, you said that _Michael_ was the King of Pessimism."

"…I hate you so much, Mali."

"Hey, I'm just trying to preserve accuracy."

"She got you there, El. But since you just claimed to be the Queen of Pessimism, and had said that Michael was the King of Pessimism, wouldn't that make you two-"

"OH MY GOD, WILL YOU GUYS SHUT UP?! ESPECIALLY YOU, SANDERS!"

As he heard them laughing over their friend's woe, Strabimon concluded that 'Kaya' had not told them about her meeting with the digimon, since she feigned obliviousness to the incident.

Strabimon stayed in the shadow of the alley, deciding that, whatever this girl's reasons were, she wasn't telling anyone about what she had witnessed.

* * *

Kaya Sanders did not like acting.

It wasn't as if she didn't like _actors_ so to speak; two of her closest friends could be considered ones. And she truly did have an appreciation for good acting, plays movies, and the entire profession in general. She, herself, simply did not have a talent for it. Or, in a more colloquial phrasing, she _sucked _at it.

At least, she thought she sucked at it.

Until a couple of days ago, where a certain incident had forced her to act as if she knew nothing of what had transpired at Alexander Fuller Middle School. In other words, _lie._

She had given a pretty convincing performance so far, managing to convince the two aforementioned thespians, the hacker, the jock, and all of her other friends and acquaintances. Her mother, when she had come home, had been slightly worried, having heard about the demolition of the school through the radio while she was coming home. Kaya had assured her that she was fine and that she wasn't present when it had happened. It was after school, after all, and Kaya usually came home at 3 (her mother didn't need to know about the whole 'pranking resulting in detention' part). Her father, coming home on Friday, had asked if she was alright. After giving him the same spiel that she had given her mother, Kaya had thought she was finally in the clear. Nobody knew she had been there, so no more questions had been asked. Besides, the whole thing was just her overactive imagination playing tricks on her. She thought. She hoped. She _prayed._

The school, as a result of the whole attack and its extensive damage, had been shut down indefinitely for the rest of the time before spring break, and it was a strong possibility that it would be closed for several days after spring break.

The majority of the seventh and eighth grades (the sixth graders were barred due to the usual "older grades get preference" custom found at most schools) traditionally had a beginning of spring break party on the eve of the first day of spring break, or the last night of school before spring break. This was normally at the front lawn of the school, starting at around 7 p.m. However, because of the great damage on the campus, the school had cancelled the bash, saying that it was too dangerous for a bunch of 12 and 13 year olds to be running around on it.

This served to annoy both grades to no end. The eighth grade especially felt cheated, due to it being the last year they attended middle school. So, instead, they came up with a new location for their habitual celebration. 67 Park Street, to be exact.

It was, in reality, an old parking lot that no one used. At all. And through the begging of several neighboring blocks and the permission of the local police stationed there (courtesy of Nicholas Suarez, son of the captain of the police department), the students of AFMS had the right to host their yearly celebration at 67 Park Street.

It was at this party that one could find Kaya Sanders and her friends at 7:30 P.M (Lulu had insisted that they be 'fashionably late').

The entire block had been transformed into an outdoor festivity. Bright strings of light had been hung all over the block, giving it a wholesome, summery feel to the whole celebration. Various tables had been set up, with chips, salsa, soda, and other foods and refreshments. The students had been mingling with each other for some time now, with the occasional kid from a neighboring school or block dropping by. All in all, it was a gala fit for middle schoolers.

As Kaya talked with her friends (minus Ellie) by the snack table, they all took note of who was at the party and who wasn't, consisting of the usual suspects. One off the list: Jack Dumont.

The boy was, along with Lulu, the center of a good party. He always had a good sense of humor and an even better sense of fashion. As such, he and Lulu got along beautifully. But tonight he was nowhere to be found.

The four girls began to discuss what exactly happened to Jack when they heard two people arguing.

"Asshole."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I offend you by telling you the awful truth?"

"You better watch your step, Knight or I'll-"

"You'll what, Lancaster? Make a film about how awful and dumb I am? I'm _sure _people will kill to see that crap."

Ellie was currently arguing with the infamous Michael Knight. Otherwise known as the person who has been the object of her ire since the second grade.

Despite being an all-round jackass (in Ellie's opinion) Michael was actually a relatively okay guy, from what Kaya and the others could see. He had been Courtney's lab partner in the sixth grade and, as such, had gotten to know their small group well enough to be considered a friend by all of them.

"Fuck off, jackass."

Well, almost all of them.

Ever since the second grade, Ellie and Michael had had a relationship of intense mutual loathing that no one could actually quite figure out. They had both made it each other's mission in life to annoy the living hell out of the other. Even as they grew older, they both stuck to this promise of hate and annoyance.

Michael was, by no means, an unattractive guy. With short blond hair, piercing blue eyes, and a rather tall physique, he was actually rather handsome. On top of the fact that he was the captain of the boys' soccer team, he was arguably the most popular boy at school. Girls practically drooled over him in the hallways at AFMS.

Yet, despite this and his friendship with Kaya and the others, he always seemed to gravitate towards Ellie. And always seemed to end up in an argument with Ellie.

"Oh please, Carrot Top. As if you could _make me._"

Many simply acknowledged the relationship between the two as one of reciprocal antipathy. However, the people who knew them best suspected it was less of a hostile association and more of a tense romantic stalemate. Of course, neither Ellie nor Michael were going to admit to something like that, so for now, they were content with verbally sparring whenever chance they got.

"How about I make you go home with some broken bones and a bloody nose?"

"You can _try_, if you want to so badly."

As the two totally not-lovers quarreled over some little issue, the four girls by the table talked over the missing Jack Woods.

Courtney looked concerned. "Maybe he was grounded."

Kaya just scoffed. "Sweet old Jack? No way. His mother would sooner keel over and die before punishing him."

Lulu whined, "I just hope he gets here. Who am I supposed to gossip with about the latest collection from Oscar?"

"You could always talk to Zuri," Mali suggested.

"Yeah, but without Jack, Zuri, and I would feel incomplete. We're the Fabulous Fashion Trio, and we _cannot_ discuss such delicate issues without all three inputs."

"Then I guess it's a good thing that I stopped at Jack In the Box's here," a new voice added.

The four girls turned around to face two boys. One was a boy who looked to be as dark as licorice, dressed in clothes that, from the eyes of an individual familiar with these sorts of matters, was from the Spring collection of Armani. A purple button down shirt, a grey vest, and black slacks, with a grey fedora to top off the look. A short individual compared to his peers, he was wearing a bright smile that rivaled Lulu's, and deep black eyes that, on anyone else would look rather intimidating. On him, however, it only served to make him look more jovial.

The other boy was smiling as well, though in more of a manner reminiscent to the Cheshire Cat. He looked to be Hispanic in ethnicity, with his tan skin and shaggy raven black hair. His eyes were a steel gray that looked almost silver in a certain light. He was dressed rather casually, in blue jeans and a simple brown shirt with black motifs on it.

Nick Suarez, the Hispanic boy, continued his statement.

"'Cause I would hate to see the Fabulous Trio be left out of the proverbial loop. Especially on a night like this."

Lulu practically squealed.

"Oh my God, Jack! Z and I were worried you wouldn't make it!"

At this, Jack looked offended.

"Of course not, Lulu! What do you take me for? Britney Spears in 2007? I would be_ crazy_ if I missed this party! It always has so many opportunities for seeing new couples."

"And new gossip," Lulu added.

"AND NEW FASHION!" They both squealed.

Running in the direction of their mutual friend, Zuri, Jack and Lulu had left the rest of the group to their own devices.

"So why did Jack not come sooner?" Courtney began.

Nick sighed good-naturedly. "He was freaking out over what to wear. So he called me and told me to make him come out of the house whether or not he approved of his outfit. You know how he gets with these kind of things."

"Typical Jack, always freaking out over outfits. Honestly, he, Zuri, and Lulu were practically _meant _to be siblings. The only reason God couldn't let that happen was because he knew that they'd choke the rest of their family with their overly abundant rays of cheer. So He settled on them being best friends instead," Kaya commented.

Mali smiled and looked at Nick. "Well, at least Lulu and Zuri won't be moping for the rest of the night. Lord knows what would've happened had you not dragged Jack out of his house."

"It's no big deal. Just all in a day's work for me. You know, helping cats out of trees, carrying heavy bags for little old ladies, forcing my fashion conscious super sassy gay best friend out of his apartment to go to a party he's waited for all year…"

The three girls and Nick all shared a laugh.

"By the way, oh all powerful thespians, what's going to happen to Cinderella now that the school's shut down?" Nick inquired.

"Yeah, I'm kind of curious about that myself," Kaya added.

"Well, Ms. Kaczynski said that it was cancelled. Everyone had already made plans for Spring break and she felt it was unfair to make everyone stay behind and change all their plans. But the Drama Club is still going to do their whole Summer Festival Montage at the end of school, so a couple of numbers from the play will be thrown in," Courtney explained.

"In other words, it'll be a shortened version of the entire thing," Mali finalized.

Nick smiled. "Oh thank goodness. I was worried I wouldn't be able to hear Courtney's melodic voice and Mali's professional piano playing."

The aforementioned blonde smiled. Mali smiled too, but with a hint of a blush.

Just as his last name suggested, Nick Suarez was, for lack of a better word, _suave. _He was polite to adults, friendly to his peers, and (in the opinion of many girls) absolutely charming. Never in his life had he faced a situation he couldn't talk his way out of. This came in handy, considering he had a rather mischievous streak and even helped Kaya and Ellie in their pranking ventures.

Nick had known all of them for a while, but he had known Mali the longest. They had been the best of friends when they were little, cooties be damned. Though age and hormones had distanced them a bit, they still managed to be the best opposite gender friends anyone knew of. Besides Lulu, Jack, and Zuri of course.

The two's separate interests eventually brought them back into each other's spheres. Nick, a talented sketcher and painter, had to design the set for the play in fifth grade. Mali, being in the production, naturally ran into him from time to time, eventually resulting in them hanging out more often like they used to.

Yes, indeed, Malia Nakahara and Nicholas Suarez were probably the best example of opposite gender best friends without at least one being gay. Well, to most people they were.

Kaya, despite her cousin concealing it well enough to fool the rest of her friends, had a sinking suspicion that Mali liked Nick as more than a friend. Whenever he complimented her, she usually smiled and said nothing. This wasn't particularly unusual to most people, but they never bothered to look at Mali's eyes, unlike Kaya. When stuff like that happened, the violet almost seemed to brighten in hue, and flecks of amber could be seen within the iris.

The blue streaked writer also suspected that Nick thought of Mali in a light that was different from his other friends. Every time Mali suggested something, Nick always backed her up, giving valid reasons to support it. In addition, whereas Nick seemed to find humor in just about everything, he only seemed to act slightly more mature around Mali.

Nudging Courtney lightly with her elbow, Kaya and the blonde belle discreetly left the two friends/'absolutely not anything more' by the table, slowly edging their way towards the other side of the block. The two girls observed their redheaded friend, still embroiled in an argument with her sworn enemy, from a distance. It looked like Ellie was about to kill someone.

"Do you think we should stop her?" the blonde asked.

The blue streaked ravenette snorted. "Are you kidding me? This is getting better by the second. I should've brought popcorn. Besides, it gives the Fabulous Trio more to gossip about."

Courtney giggled. "True. I just wish those two would get over their egos and just confess to each other. It's like…"

"A really bad soap opera where the couple is so obviously meant for each other but, due to forces outside their control, totally random plot twists, and their own inflated pride, they don't get together until one of them is severely injured and close to death?"

"Basically."

The two girls eventually left the feuding lovers be and took advantage of the party scene. They mingled, ate, drank, and danced until their feet were sore. But the party showed no signs of stopping any time soon, and all five girls, at different locations on the block decided that they might as well take advantage of this taste of freedom for as long as they could.

Everything was going seamlessly. Kaya was dancing, laughing, and having fun. Her friends were enjoying themselves. Everyone was happy. No one knew what she was hiding. And, for a couple of fleeting moments, she had forgotten the very incident that had nearly cost her life and was beginning to cost her sleep and sanity.

But, as a wise man once said…

_Crash! Crack! Slam! _"Aahhhhhhh!"

…All good things must come to an end.

* * *

_Sorry I haven't been on the grand old interweb for a while, but I've just been really been busy with school, sports, and all that typical life stuff. So here's a chapter on Easter! Yay!_


	8. Chapter 7

_Get ready for a surprise this chapter. *Cues devious, evil laughter.*_

_I do not own Digimon._

* * *

_Chapter 7_

_…And Nightmares._

* * *

Wizardmon looked upon the screaming humans as if they were mad.

Really, just a simple explosion, and that was cause for panic? How…odd.

If it were the Digital World, they would not have run and cowered in fear. They would not have showed such blatant weakness. Those in-training might of, that was understandable. But even some of those digimon would not have run. If anything, they would have fought. Bravely. Honorably. Viciously. Just as they were born and bred to do. Just as the great order of their world expected them to.

But not here.

Here, you preserved your life as long as possible. Even if it meant displaying weakness, you did whatever you could to live another day. They had no concept of dying with honor, because they had no concept of honor. They only knew of dying, and in this sad, grey world, dying took much longer than just the scanning of data and being reborn. It was significantly much more painful, he noted.

Take the human who was struggling under the weight of red stones, for example. Lying on the ground, with various protrusions and bruises on her body, she let out a red liquid from her body instead of revealing data. Blood, it was called. Similar to data, it was the thing that gave humanity life. Unlike data, however, it could not be taken so one could become stronger. And because there was no digi-egg to be reborn, no new chance at life, humans often died in excruciatingly exquisite pain.

Wizardmon looked upon the dying human (because isn't that what happened to humans who let out too much blood?) with a twisted, if not misguided, curiosity. He had heard how they died and some of his comrades had described so in rather vague detail. He, himself, had never seen a human, in general, up close, much less one who had a foot in the grave.

He would never admit it, but he actually felt sorry for the girl. He wasn't meaning to kill anyone. He just needed to lure out that Strabimon character. _Oni-sama_ had ordered it, after all. As such, Wizardmon had theorized that another explosion caused by non-human means would coax out the wolf warrior. He had just wanted an explosion large enough to attract his attention. Hurt humans, he was willing to do. Scare them, yes. But, though he knew that it would eventually cross his path, death was not something he would intentionally wrought.

Then again, he supposed, with _Oni-sama's_ true endgame, it would require the deaths of a large number of humans.

It didn't mean he necessarily liked it. It was just a necessity for the greater good.

But, perhaps, he could at least alleviate this one girl's pain.

"I didn't mean to cause you harm," he began, "Not to anyone here, really. I just needed to get someone out of hiding."

The girl, whom, Wizardmon realized, had odd blue lines within her black hair, looked at him from her place on the ground as if she didn't believe her. He didn't blame her.

Wizardmon continued.

"Nevertheless, I'm sorry. You're here while others are running. Your friends probably won't realize that you're missing until it's too late. You're bleeding on concrete and you are dying. I can't let you tell anyone that you saw me, so I have to let you die. But I am sorry."

The girl now stared back at him in confusion and, it seemed like, empathy, on a certain level.

"At the very least," he began to raise his wand, "I can make it quicker."

But Wizardmon never managed to do it.

Because Strabimon, the very digimon he was seeking out, had tackled him to the ground. And he did _not_ look particularly happy.

* * *

Kaya Sanders, at this point in time, concluded that the universe and God hated her guts and decided to amuse themselves by making her go insane or killing her as painfully as possible_._

Because really, what other person could say that they had been almost killed by three monsters, who may or may not have been real or a figment of her imagination, lied about said incident, and just when they felt safe, be attacked again by another possibly crazy mind induced monster and be trapped under a pile of bricks, while bleeding and quite possibly dying? In the span of a freaking _week?_

After getting all of the bricks off of her body, Kaya made it a priority to get herself out of there. Like _now._

At least, she had, until she saw the wolf monster. The same monster whom she had encountered on Monday, with the whole evil sludge monster incident.

Was it real? Did that actually happen? Was she _actually_ crazy? And why were those monsters, if they were real, even here? What, in the name of God, were they? What did they even want?

Whatever those answers were, she was going to get them. And she was going to start with that wolf creature.

* * *

Strabimon had been rather unoccupied when he had heard the explosion a couple of blocks down. He was traveling by way of shadows and alleys, searching the city for any rogue digimon. Joltmon hadn't come due to the injuries she had suffered a couple of days prior, so she had stayed behind in the warehouse.

When he had gotten to the source of the explosion, a mass of humans were running for their lives, a building was partially damaged, and a Wizardmon was apparently talking to a pile of bricks.

However, when he got closer, he saw that he was conversing with a human girl under that pile of bricks. A bleeding human girl. With blue streaked hair.

As soon as he saw that Wizardmon was about to kill her, Strabimon attacked him.

By now, he had been edging Wizardmon away from the area for a good 5 minutes. The less people knew about this, the better. And the _last _thing they needed to know was the existence of another, completely alien race.

As Strabimon fought the mystic type digimon, he felt it was a good a time as any to ask him some questions. After all, these occurrences had been going on for months and without any discernible reason. It couldn't be a coincidence.

He had finally managed to hit Wizardmon with his Light Claw, injuring him enough to reveal his fractal code. Keeling to the ground, Wizardmon looked at Strabimon with disdain. Strabimon, in the meantime, wasted no time in getting to the point.

"Why are you here?"

Wizardmon feigned confused. "I don't know what you mean."

"The attacks. For several months this has been going on. Digimon showing up in the human world may be one thing, but solely to cause harm? And immediately after one another? That's not a random happenstance. That's a planned assault."

"Come now. You have to know what we're doing here. You can't be _that_ naïve," Wizardmon responded. From the look on his face, he truly thought that the answer should have been obvious.

Several beats passed with the two digimon glaring at each other. Finally, realization slowly came upon Wizardmon.

"You…you really don't know, do you?"

At this, Strabimon raised an eyebrow. Why would Wizardmon think that he knew about all this?

Sighing, Wizardmon shifted so that he was sitting with his legs in a pretzel.

"What a shame. You seem to be an intelligent fellow. And considering that a rookie such as yourself defeated a champion level digimon, you would be an invaluable confederate to _Oni-sama_."

_Oni-sama?_

"Who is-"

But before Strabimon could even fully form his question, Wizardmon waved his wooden wand and let out a cloud of blue smoke, disappearing.

* * *

Kaya had been hiding in the opposite alleyway on the other block when all of this occurred. And she had heard everything.

And at this point, she was more disturbed than ever.

So, was that why all of these attacks were perpetrated? It was part of some sort of strategy? But for what? And who the hell was _Oni-sama_?

The blue streaked preteen faintly remembered that _oni_ was Japanese for a demon or evil spirit that caused you trouble and misery, due to reading some books of Mali's containing Japanese myths. Some of these _oni _did more than that, often causing a person to go mad and lead them to their, more often than not, bloody and horrific deaths. Whether or not this _Oni-sama _one of these demons, Kaya hadn't a clue. Either way, she was willing to bet that whoever they were, they weren't particularly peace loving or friendly.

Apparently, the wolf creature didn't know much about this guy either, considering he was the one who was asking the questions. And the Harry-Potter knock off was clearly not giving him any answers.

She was leaning forward to hear more of the conversation, but for some reason, it stopped. Then, a low growl.

"Damn it…"

Kaya recognized the voice belonged to the wolf creature. From what she could make of it, Harry Potter had somehow escaped. But to where?

She got her answer faster than she would've liked.

The very next second, blue smoke materialized in front of her. Kaya began to cough. She stopped immediately after what she saw.

Harry Potter had teleported out of there. And right into here.

He looked bruised, tired, and thoroughly shocked as he stared right back at her. He apparently wasn't planning on this either.

They kept up this staring contest for a good 10 seconds, until Harry Potter slashed his wand into the air. It turned from a stick of wood into a blade of medal in the time it took to snap one's fingers.

_Oh hell…_

Kaya began to make a break for the other direction, but he grabbed a hold of her shoulder and jerked her back. In the process, he had stabbed her left side.

"Ow! Goddamit you jerk!"

With that, the preteen proceeded to knee said jerk in the stomach. The Gryffindor alumnus look alike recoiled with a small groan. However, he was not giving up any time soon, as he used his knife to cut her arm, leaving a very deep wound.

Even before she had come to the alley, Kaya had felt dizzy. She attributed this to the blood she had lost and massive headache she gained from being trapped under a ton of bricks. The fact that Harry Potter was attempting to kill her was only aggravating all of this.

Now that he had cut her arm, she was losing more blood. Meaning she felt all the more dizzy and disoriented, beginning to lose perception of what was ground and what was sky. Only faintly did she acknowledge that, if she didn't get out of here and get help soon, she was going to die.

Kaya reached for his arm and twisted as far as he could, making him drop the knife and howl in pain, a data like ring showing up around his body. He was obviously injure enough to the point where _he _could be close to death. Good. Let the bastard feel how she did.

As she began to edge the knife toward her with her foot, she suddenly felt all too weak. All of her body felt like it was made of Jell-O and she couldn't hold his arm firmly.

_ . Not now. Just couple more minutes, seconds, __anything.__ Please, I just need more time._

Harry Potter had taken note of her sudden weakness, and took the opportunity to wrench his arm out of Kaya's grip. He then grabbed the preteen's throat with both hands and squeezed.

She couldn't breathe.

She couldn't fight.

She could barely feel her own limbs.

Harry Potter looked at her with a sad, tired glance.

"I'm sorry. But I can't let you live, having seen what you've seen."

As the life was being squeezed out of her, Kaya could feel her head get lighter and lighter, and the blood draining from her entire body.

Looking up into the night sky, she saw a thousand stars in a sky full of black. Briefly, she wondered how those kind of lights survived and refused to be swallowed by the darkness.

She looked at the very person choking her to death.

_Fight._

She balled up her left hand, and clawed her right.

_Fight._

She let out a war cry…

_Fight._

…And took a hold of the circle of data surrounding him.

_Fight, Kaya._

* * *

Strabimon didn't know where Wizardmon had ran off to. Until he heard a very loud howl of pain.

"Ow! Goddamit you jerk!"

He immediately ran to the source of the noise, finding a rather odd and disturbing sight.

Wizardmon was trying to kill the human girl, choking her and holding her against the brick wall. She was bleeding and writhing in his grasp, very clearly dying from the blood loss and the pressure to her throat.

Strabimon made his way to stop Wizardmon, but the girl beat him to the punch.

She grabbed a hold of Wizardmon's arm with one hand, jamming a knife into it, and with her free one, grasped his data ring.

Wizardmon was, quite clearly, disturbed by the girl's actions and tried to break away. However, whether it was from the adrenaline or sheer will, the girl wouldn't let go.

The blue streaked human let out an ear piercing cry all the while she was doing this. Wizardmon joined the chorus by screaming in horror as his data was being taken away from him, still attempting to stop the human girl he now viewed, Strabimon imagined, as completely and utterly mad.

The girl had a death grip on Wizardmon's data and, inadvertently, pulled towards her as she struggled to plunge the knife further into his arm.

Soon enough, Wizardmon himself was beginning to disassemble into nothing but data. The girl paid no mind to this, still fixated on surviving this whole ordeal, and continued to hold Wizardmon and his data towards her, preparing to stab him in the gut. But she never got the chance.

Wizardmon, or rather, his egg, fell to the ground with a loud resounding thump, leaving his left over data in a large, messy pile. The girl, still unaware of this, simply pulled the data even closer towards her while trying driving the knife further into what she assumed was Wizardmon's arm.

The data seemed to gain mind of its own after that, immediately surrounding the blue streaked human and entering her body through the various gashes and wounds on her body. In that instant, her injuries healed almost spontaneously, and the blood ceased to course outside her body. Her eyes instantly shifted colors, from their usual black, to amber, to red, to blue, and black again. They finally seemed to settle on a glowing amber, before reverting back to black. The data, still winding itself around her, began to seep into her fingers until it was completely absorbed into her body. All that remained was a digi-egg and a shocked human girl in an alley, who seemed to be more terrified than when she was at Death's Door.

Strabimon began to believe that she truly had become insane, until he saw her close her eyes and cover her ears, as if the sights aggravated her eyes and the sounds were at a deafening decibel. This wasn't normal, not for a human. They could take such a wide decibel range that the human world emanated.

But not digimon. At least, not digimon who had gone from in-training to rookie. Heightened sense were often the side effects of this shift in age. The wolf digimon himself could remember when he had first experienced this. He had locked himself in his room for a week before he felt at ease with these new resonances and enhanced images.

He had locked himself in his room. And he had stayed in a corner, crouched, trying to keep the world out. He had covered his ears. He had closed his eyes. He looked his psyche was about to ompletely shatter. Just as what this girl looked like now.

It was impossible, logic dictated. It had never happened before in the history of this world, or his. It just could not happen, his consciousness told him.

But, despite his outward denial, inwardly, he knew the truth.

This blue streaked human girl was now half digimon.

* * *

_So yeah...surprise!_


	9. Chapter 8

_I don't own Digimon._

* * *

_Chapter 8_

_Of Monsters and Men_

* * *

There was too much. Too much sound, too much color, too much scent, too much _everything._

She curled up into a ball, trying to keep the entire world out. And failing miserably.

Once, when she was younger, Kaya believed that the world would be a lot more fun and beautiful if people could hear the higher decibels that birds could. Or if they could see more variations of light that other creatures could. She prayed day and night that God would somehow let her wake up with the same senses as these animals.

The girl had eventually forgotten about this wish, as she grew older. Only now did she recall it. And she regretted it immensely.

The senses did nothing to make the world more beautiful. They just made it more painful. The sounds blasted her ear drums out and overwhelmed her, as if she were drowning in them. The colors did no service to her either, blinding her eyes and swirling around her like ravenous wolves circling their prey. She smelled nearly everything there was to smell in a dark alley in the middle of Brooklyn, New York and it certainly didn't appeal to those who were faint of scent.

Kaya kept herself in that position, caving in on herself and trying to silence all the noise around her.

_ I'm going insane. I'm going insane. Oh my God, I'm actually going crazy._

Trying to keep her mentality intact, Kaya did not register that there was another person in the alley with her until a hand was placed on her shoulder.

"Calm down. Just focus."

She immediately began to swat at whoever was speaking. Be it wolf or wizard, human or monster, she just wanted to be left alone.

Whoever it was, they didn't get the hint. They simply just kept talking to her. The last thing she needed was _another _voice, another noise, to keep track of.

"Shut u- Argh! Goddamit!"

Her own shouting sounded louder than any other noise she heard. Sure, some people wanted her to not talk with all her sass, but never had Kaya thought that she'd be sick of her own voice.

The unknown person said nothing for a couple minutes. All the while, Kaya just sat there, trying to keep out whatever senses she could.

Finally, "Try focusing on one sound. And only one sound."

Despite her rising urge to tell them to stick that advice up their ass and go to hell, Kaya followed the suggestion.

One sound. Just focus on one sound.

The…the wind. Only the wind.

_BEEP!SQUEAK!VROOM!AHH!WOOF!OHMYGODREALLY!OW!BITCH!WOOWOO!YAY!SCREECH!WHOOSH!WHOOSh!WHOOsh!WHOoshWHooshWhoosh_

_Whoosh. Whoosh._

Okay.

Okay.

"Okay," Kaya finally breathed. "Okay."

"Now open your eyes. Slowly." Though she could barely make out the words over the sound of the wind, the girl still complied.

Carefully, she allowed her eyelids to see hints of what was in front of her. Just a peak of the world was overwhelming, with so many shades and tints and shadows and lights coexisting all at once.

Kaya kept her eyelids in that straining position until she felt confident enough to further open them.

Little by little, she saw the world. Or, rather, the little piece of the world she resided in. She could make out the bricks of a building, a knife on the ground, and someone kneeling beside her.

Someone. Or something.

Gradually coming to, Kaya found the wolf creature from the other day sitting next to her, with a hand (paw?) still on her shoulder. He gave a rather sheepish smile.

"Hello..."

* * *

Digimon. That's what they were called. Digimon.

After a surprise yelp, accidentally hitting him on the head, and apologizing profusely, Kaya received a very long winded explanation on the whole situation. How he was searching for his identity, which eventually led him to come to this world in search of answers. How, in the past six weeks, he had pretty much attempted to prevent any catastrophe like the one at the school from occurring. How digimon came from another world, extremely similar, but also extremely different from this one.

Kaya and Strabimon (weird thing about digimon: all their names end with –mon) had already left the scene of the disaster/ torn down building/ site of Wizardmon's demise, and traversed through various alleyways to that old abandoned factory in Brooklyn that everyone and their mother believed to be haunted. He had pretty much given the full story while they were headed there.

This wasn't real.

_This isn't real my ass._

From what she had seen of him from the other day, Kaya had expected Strabimon to be…well, not what he actually came off being. He was on the quiet side, but also had the manners of one of those martial arts guys from those old 70's movies. Kind of awkward and just little bit of a nerd.

Now here they were, a kung fu juijitsu wolf and a stupidly insane girl, at the entrance of an old abandoned factory.

Weird did not even _begin _to describe the situation.

"So, where exactly is…Jo…joel…whatserface again?"

Strabimon scanned the area as they went through the front.

"Well, she should be somewhere around-"

But before he could finish, Joltmon appeared from, what it seemed, out of nowhere.

"Hey Strabi- AHHHHHHHHHH!"

Joltmon immediately proceeded to point her paw at Kaya, as if she was an animal at the Central Park Zoo.

"Strabi…How the…Who…Is she…WHAT THE FUCK STRABIMON?! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!"

Strabimon, in light of the entire screaming tirade, simply sighed.

"Joltmon, it's not-"

"WHAT THE HELL POSSESSED YOU TO BRING A HUMAN-"

"She hasn't told anyone."

"Back HERE-"

"It's not that simple."

"WHEN SHE COULD BE A SPY-"

"Who in the world would she be spying _for_-"

"WHO COULD DISCOVER ALL OF OUR SECRETS AND WHY WE'RE HERE-"

"She already knows about that."

"WHAT?!"

"And there's something else too."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'SOMETHING ELSE'?"

"Well…"

"WELL WHAT?!"

Throughout the entire conversation, Kaya couldn't help but be amused at the whole thing. Joltmon looked as if the apocalypse had come, while Strabimon had a poker face worthy of a Las Vegas professional.

Still, they kind of needed to get to the point of this whole excursion. This was taking way too long. And people were probably starting to get worried about her lack of presence.

"He thinks I'm half digimon now."

And just like that, two digimon stared at one human girl.

* * *

"Okay," she began, "so let me get this straight: Wizardmon was already injured when he tried to kill you. You fought back. And when you de-digitized him, you were holding some of his data. And as a result, that data was transferred to you."

Kaya (so _that_ was the girl's name) shrugged.

"Basically."

Joltmon had heard of stories like this, where the impossible actually happened, and those lucky mystic practitioners who witnessed them became the stuff of legends. She had always written them off as Shamanmon's stupid tales that he just told to bore his students into obedience.

She was reconsidering that theory as of late.

Sure, digimon could become organic in the human world. It was what allowed them to interact with the environment without phasing through it or disappearing. But very few had considered the idea that that fact could also be a disadvantage in some scenarios. And no one had thought that a human could actually take a digimon's fractal code and infuse with their own. Not in the human world at least.

But here was this girl, who had done exactly what everyone thought to be impossible. And, for the most part, she seemed perfectly fine.

Joltmon was torn between having an aneurism and shaking Strabimon and Kaya so hard they became jell-o.

"Okay. Okay. Just...oh my gods. Do you guys know how big this is? This is big. Like, on a frickin' astronomical level. An astronomically universally super fucking nova level."

Strabimon nodded curtly. A small gesture of recognition.

Kaya, on the other hand, looked as if she were about to pass out. From either excitement or shock, Joltmon couldn't tell.

"What's wrong?" Ugh, what a stupid question. Why did she have to say that? From Kaya's point of view, just about everything that could've and would've gone wrong _did_ in a single night.

Joltmon expected an outburst from the girl. She got something worse.

"So...does that mean...I'm not human anymore?"

_Maybe…_

"Uh..."

What the hell was she supposed to say to _that_? 'No, of course you're still human. You just happen to have extremely heightened senses and enhanced reflexes that may or may not have originated from the fractal code of a now reincarnated digimon. You're still absolutely, one hundred percent _human.'_

But that would be something of a lie.

The truth was, that Joltmon didn't _know_ if Kaya was still human or not. True, the fractal code had entered her system, but it could only have been added onto her existing code without altering it. On the other hand, Wizardmon's fractal code could have completely overtaken Kaya's, truly making her a digimon. The third, and slightly more realistic, prospect was that Wizardmon's digital code and Kaya's inherent human code had blended together into something else; a code that was neither human nor digimon.

"I..."

How the hell was she supposed to explain this?

"I'm...not all that sure. Nothing like this has ever actually happened before. But my best guess is that you're now pretty much what you said you were: half human and half digimon. So...you're kind of a hybrid, so to speak."

Kaya retained an emotionless face as Joltmon spoke. For a moment, the digimon wondered if she was going to go into rage.

Then Kaya offered up a (admittedly weak) smile.

"So I'm like one of those mutants from X-men, huh?"

Though Joltmon hadn't been in the human world long enough to know what 'ex-men' were, she figured a smile at the attempted humor was better comfort than none.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Though, if I'm half digimon, that doesn't mean I'll be all furry and shit, right? I already struggle with just shaving my legs. I mean, it works for you, but him," Kaya pointed at Strabimon while speaking, "...yeah, he needs a makeover. Or at least a groomer to keep that mess in check."

Joltmon snorted. "Ugh, tell me about. I tried combing his fur, but he just ran away. Apparently, warriors don't bother maintaining their fur. But I know he's just too wimpy to deal with the pain of getting the tangles out."

"Girl, if you wanna know real pain, try dealing with getting the tangles out of my hair while it's un-flat ironed and _curly. That _is true suffering. If he doesn't want to deal with that, he doesn't know the damn meaning of the word."

Strabimon sighed at the two's exchange.

"You do both realize I'm still present?"

Kaya and Joltmon both turned to the wolf-like digimon, looking at him as if he just grew two heads.

"Strabimon, you-"

"Seriously, dude, you need to get a sense of humor. The whole 'angsty emo wolf' act ain't gonna last forever."

Joltmon and Strabimon now stared at Kaya, who simply shrugged. "Well, it's true."

A beat of silence. Then, "A love for trolling people and making fun of anything and everything…I think she and I are going to be very good friends."

Kaya just smirked. "Likewise."

All the while, Strabimon internally sighed.

_Kami, help me..._

* * *

_Strabimon's probably gonna lose his mind with these two before the year's over. :)_


End file.
